DETROIT – The automotive industry is about building memories, noted Scott Costello, a commodity manager of American Axle & Manufacturing in Detroit, and one of the five young leaders recognized during the 2007 Automotive Hall of Fame Induction & Awards Night.
“Throughout the country in the board room or the chat room, you can always find someone with a car story,” Costello said as he accepted one of five Young Leadership & Excellence Award during the ceremony held October 16, 2007, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dearborn, Mich.
One of the features of the hall of fame’s induction ceremony was recognizing individuals 35 years old or younger, who are current leaders in the automotive industry. Besides Costello, the other winners of young leadership award were Jeffrey Gale, design manager, Advanced Exterior Product Design, Chrysler LLC; Chaelynne Pope, senior manager of Manufacturing Planning & Program Management at Chrysler; and Vicki Vlachakis, design manager at General Motor’s Advanced Studio in Hollywood, California.
The extent to which the car business impacts people wasn’t obvious to Costello as he grew up in Michigan. He mentioned that he originally thought his father’s job of making axles was boring.
It wasn’t until he graduated from Michigan State University and began working at American Axle, “and started to feel and touch the product and see the product on vehicles out on the road that I realized that the auto industry was where I was supposed to be,” he added. Nominated for the Young Leadership award by his colleagues at American Axle, he said that he was struggling, however, to come up with a story to tell during his acceptance. The day before the induction ceremony, Costello said as he took a tour of the hall of fame, his father used the occasion to present his mother with an exact replica of her engagement present, a 1965 Volkswagen Beetle.
“As I watched (the hubbub around my father’s gift), it dawned on me that in the automotive industry, we build memories,” Costello said.
Another young leader award winner who had roots in the industry was Gale, who is the son of retired Chrysler Vice President of Design Tom Gale. He remarked that his father also had influenced him, though he started his post collegiate career at the Kenner toy company rather than the auto industry. “My dad has taught me a lot of things and he has been one of the most influential people in my life – to have integrity and professionalism,” the younger Gale said. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati, after Kenner toys, he went to work at General Motors and then Ford before joining Chrysler in 2000. At the smallest of the three American-based auto manufactures, he was the lead exterior designer for the 2008 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans. He had a hand in creating the upcoming Dodge Challenger.
Gale mentioned that his wife has supported his career to the point when she was pregnant with the first of their three daughters, she allowed him to purchase a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner.
The senior manager of Manufacturing Planning & Program Management at Chrysler, Pope is responsible for all manufacturing program planning and management activities. She said, however, that she begged her grandmother, Dorothy Walton, to allow her to take engineering courses when she entered college, even though she had never shown any kind of mechanical aptitude before.
“I’m sure my grandmother remembers that her favorite rose bush on the side of the house was tragically mowed down by her new John Deere tractor because I wanted to see what it could do from a mechanical perspective,” she added. Pope’s schooling includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Manufacturing Engineering form Kettering University in Flint, Michigan, a master’s from Baker College, and a doctorate from Nova Southeastern University. Winning the young leadership award is a humbling experience, she said, adding that many people including her mentors at Chrysler and her manufacturing planning team got her to the point she is today.
“At the end of the launch day, except for pretty charts and graphs, we don’t have any exciting products to show for our efforts,” Pope said. “However, without my planning team members and their commitment to develop appropriate business strategies, the world may never see all the exciting new sheet metal that customers come to expect from our company.”
Recognized for working on the interior designs of the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn, Vlachakis’ team of designers, “digital sculptures” and engineers work on all GM brands at the automaker’s Hollywood Studio, including the Chevrolet SS concept vehicle interior. A graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, she said, “The automotive industry is a great place for a designer to be today. Manufacturers are achieving levels of quality that are amazing.”
Born in Brazil, Regina Salazar earned a bachelor of Computer Science degree from State University of Campinas/SP in Brazil and, later, a master’s degree from Central Michigan University. She started at Rockwell Automotive in 1994, which later was spun-off by Rockwell International as an independent company called Meritor. After merging with another automotive supplier, the company became ArvinMeritor.
Salazar is director of operations for ArvinMeritor’s Quality and Supply Chain Processes department and during the last year, she led the development and rollout of the company’s lean production system in the Americas and Europe.
Photos courtesy of Joe Wilssens
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